Persistent inhibition of microsaccades caused by attentional concentration T Kohama1, S Endoh2, H Yoshida1 |
|---|
1Department of Computational Systems Biology, Kinki University, Japan |
| Recent studies have shown that the mechanisms responsible for microsaccades, which are small involuntary shifts in eye-gaze position, are related to the visual attention system. These studies have shown that microsaccade rates increase with shifts in attention allocation. In contrast, other studies have shown that microsaccades are inhibited when visual attention is intensely applied on a fixed target. It has not yet been established which of these conclusions is correct. In this study, we hypothesized that the microsaccade rate would decrease according to the degree of attentional concentration. Subjects performed RSVP tasks by maintaining their fixation on the alphabetical characters that were displayed at the center of a CRT monitor. The degree of attentional engagement of the subjects was controlled by changing the target character contrast. We then analyzed the relationship between the microsaccade rate and the degree of attentional engagement. The microsaccade rate was suppressed simultaneous with the display of the target objects and was increased after the target was extinguished. When higher concentration was required, the inhibition of microsaccade occurrence was prolonged. These results suggest that the microsaccade rate was inhibited according to the concentration of visual attention in the foveal region. |
| Up Home |
|---|